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Sam Thompson on playing on the roadOhio State junior Sam Thompson on the Buckeyes maybe playing tougher on the road. Ohio State is 3-3 on the road and 3-3 at home in Big Ten play this season going into Saturday's game at Illinois.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State’s defense forces a lot of missed shots. Opponents are shooting 44.2 percent from the field in Big Ten play, but only 30.2 percent from 3-point range.

Too often, the Buckeyes aren’t grabbing those misses. No. 22 Ohio State (19-6, 6-6 Big Ten) has given up double-digit offensive rebounds in seven of its last eight games going into Saturday’s game at Illinois (14-11, 3-9). According to the advance stats at kenpom.com, the Buckeyes are allowing opponents to grab offensive rebounds on 33 percent of their opportunities in Big Ten play, which ranks 11th out of 12 teams in conference games.

After allowing 14 offensive rebounds in Tuesday’s 70-60 loss to Michigan, Thad Matta said the Buckeyes need to do a better job sliding to box out the opposing big man when center Amir Williams goes to try to block a shot. Williams had just one block against the Wolverines, but Michigan center Jordan Morgan had six offensive boards.

Asked again Friday, Matta emphasized this as an area that’s been hurting his team.

“We’ve got to do a better job,” Matta said, “because our defense is pretty good. And teams have shown to miss shots against us. As we talk about, we put so much into guarding actions and taking this away, so that’s why you’ve got to finish the possession by getting the ball or it’s kind of all for naught.”

• Glad to hit the road? Could the Buckeyes be glad to get away from home on Saturday? Could be. Ohio State is both 3-3 on the road and at home in Big Ten play.

“We’ve shown we’re kind of a different team on the road, and I can’t really figure it out,” OSU junior Sam Thompson said. “But we have sort of a different way about us on the road in crunch time when we need to get that stop, when we need that bucket.

“We have shown we are capable of doing it, we’ve done it multiple times this year. It’s just about getting it done every time we step out on the floor.”

Ohio State has lost its last two games at Illinois, as Thompson pointed out he hasn’t won there as a Buckeye.

• Playing for what? The Buckeyes won five Big Ten titles in the last eight years, and last season they finished a game behind first-place Indiana. So sitting at 6-6, and four games behind first-place Michigan and Michigan State, the Buckeyes have other things to think about. There won’t be a title this year.

“The focus changes a little bit. We talked about it yesterday,” Thompson said. “We’re all used to being in the position where we’re hunkering down to win a Big Ten Championship at this point of the year. Now that we can no longer do that, we can’t control our own destiny, we’ve really got to play for another cause.”

Thompson listed three new causes.

First is making the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes are in good shape for that barring a complete collapse. Bracketologist Joe Lunardi at ESPN.com has Ohio State as a No. 6 seed, while Jerry Palm at CBSSports.com puts the Buckeyes as a No. 5 seed. A gathering of reporters in Indianapolis this week made the Buckeyes a No. 5 seed in a mock bracket.

Not having to play on Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament is a second goal. Ohio State would have to finish in the top four of the league to do that. Right now, the Buckeyes are in fifth place at 6-6, one game behind 7-5 Wisconsin.

The third goal is winning the Big Ten Tournament. Having to play an extra game would make that more difficult. Remarkably, Ohio State has made the Big Ten Tournament title game four straight years and seven of the last eight seasons. The Buckeyes won the tournament last season, their fifth tournament title under Matta.

• Not like the others:As pointed out right after the game, the loss Tuesday to Michigan wasn’t a crushing, season-changing defeat. Matta reiterated Friday that he thought the Buckeyes actually played well.

“I felt coming off the game that we did some really, really good things,” Matta said.

Matta said he saw mistakes that made the Buckeyes come apart down the stretch, but he agreed with the idea that Thompson thought the Buckeyes played some of their best basketball of the season for the first 30 minutes. Then Ohio State made a few mistakes, and the Wolverines jumped on them.

“When we are playing our best basketball, that’s what we do," Matta said.

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